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Month: December 2009

I know its a bit late, but I just read an article on BikeDenver’s blog about Denver’s new bicycle ordinances.

Alot was changed to reflect state law, but there’s a couple new ordinances that I like:

Riding on Sidewalks for the Purpose of Parking: Denver law will now allow bicyclists to ride on the sidewalk not in excess of 6 miles per hour if they are within one block of the location where they plan to park their bike.

Finally, a sensible sidewalk solution. FYI: Its a terrible idea to ride from point A to point B using sidewalks. However, what about parking? Previously, to be legal, you’d have to dismount and walk your bicycle. Now, you can ride to your parking location if you do it slowly as any good cyclist should do when on sidewalks.

Right to Ride on Roadways: Language requiring bicyclists to ride on adjacent pathways if available was eliminated from the City code. This makes it legal to ride a bike on any Denver roadway, including Speer Boulevard.

I am so glad to see them get rid of the mandatory adjacent side path rule. Thanks to the rule, all of Speer Blvd and a few other roads were off limits to cyclists due to the adjacent paths. Unfortunately, these paths are not always ideal for cycling, and their on/off ramps don’t always occur often enough to be useful. Now, you can legally make use of the adjacent road ways.